Work Text:
Dating a model was quite an experience.
When he’d came across Taehyung’s pictures on his dating app, Jungkook had been skeptical. Not because of the pictures, but rather because of the word ‘model’ dropped innocently in the middle of the elder’s bio. Taehyung himself had looked flawless in the photos he’d chosen for his profile, and some of them definitely appeared professionally taken, with careful lighting and one even with an elaborate set as the backdrop. But even as he’d confirmed his potential interest in the man, Jungkook had fully reserved himself to the idea that Taehyung was without a doubt a catfish, because there was no way such a gorgeous model like him was using a dumb dating app.
Which is why it had taken Jungkook ten minutes to get over his initial disbelief when Taehyung messaged him, not with a robotic-sounding pickup line or a clear spam link, but instead with an enthusiastic, “hi youre really handsome omg your smile is so!!! cute!!! quick, baths or showers???”
(He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t endeared from the start.)
Even after talking and meeting in person for the first time, Jungkook had been unsure. Taehyung always dressed nicely, stylishly even, but he never dressed ridiculously expensive; his phone was a newer model, but not the latest on the market, and it had its fair share of scuffs and scratches. He held doors for anyone and spoke politely to everyone he crossed paths with. Nothing about him — other than his looks — screamed model .
Taehyung, of course, found Jungkook’s confusion hilarious. He teased him with little mercy, joking about going on shopping dates to Gucci stores and lamenting exaggeratedly about not being allowed to drive a sports car due to his condition.
Needless to say, Jungkook learned quickly that model didn’t necessarily equate to rich or stuck up like he’d always assumed.
Some of the things he thought he knew about modeling stayed true, though, like long, seemingly random work hours, long wait times, and occasional travel.
Hence how they ended up in the United States instead of South Korea on a Wednesday.
“I still don’t feel like this is a good idea.”
Taehyung hummed beside him, head tilted back and enjoying the little bit of breeze. “I think you’re overthinking.”
“It can take just sixty seconds to drown, Tae.”
“And you can drown in as little as an inch of water. By that logic, I should avoid sinks, toilets and puddles, not just pools.”
Jungkook frowned. He dragged his sunglasses down his nose to give him his best ‘please listen to me’ look. “I’m just concerned for your safety. You know, like a good boyfriend.”
“And I appreciate that,” Taehyung replied kindly, repeating himself for the nth time yet still as patient as he had been the first. “But this is perfectly safe. I’m fine around water as long as I’m supervised, just like when you stay in the room when I take a bath. All of the models will be assisted in and out of the pool to make sure we don’t slip. If I start feeling bad, I’ll let someone know like I always do. Even in a worst case scenario, if a seizure does come on suddenly and I do start drowning by some chance, there’s a lifeguard present and the agency hired a medical team to be on set for this, just in case. I’m well taken care of, Kookie.”
Jungkook sighed, crossing his arms. “I’d just like to not lose my boyfriend to a pool shoot of all things when your feet could be flat and safe on the ground.”
Taehyung snorted. “Hate to break it to you, love, but I’d be more likely to die crossing the road, epileptic or not. Or falling! You know, more people die from just falling than you would expect.”
Jungkook winced. Taehyung fell plenty of times due to seizures; he didn’t want to even think about that.
“I know that. It just feels like you’re flirting with a situation that could easily get you hurt, is all.”
“I would walk off set right now if I didn’t think it was perfectly safe,” Taehyung reassured him.
He could see an assistant tentatively approaching, trying to avoid interrupting their conversation. “…Taehyung Kim?”
His boyfriend turned and smiled politely at her. His English was accented, but pretty on his tongue despite it. “My turn?”
“Yes, Sir. Right this way.”
Taehyung swung his legs off the lounge chair and stepped out from under the umbrella’s shade. The sun practically made him glow, the white of the pareo wrap around his hips and the cropped halter top standing out starkly against the tan of his skin, all topped by a black pool cover-up and a wide-brimmed sun hat that kind of made him look like a wealthy country club mom. Taehyung flashed him a flirty wink over the rim of his ridiculously big sunglasses when he caught Jungkook staring, sashaying away with all the power of a man who knew he looked damn good.
Suits or skirts, it didn’t matter; Taehyung looked best in confidence, after all.
✾
The next three hours were, predictably, filled with outfit changes, makeup touch-ups, and camera flashes. English and Korean chatter mixed and, paired with the bright sunlight and heat, made Taehyung edge dangerously towards a headache, even with all the quick pauses for hydration. Jungkook mercifully handed him cool water untouched by the sun overhead every time he returned to their corner for a break, soothing the throbbing in his head that was begging to escalate.
“How much longer, do you think?” Jungkook asked, watching the photographer talk with a small group of assistants as a model was led over for her next shots.
“I’ve already shot in all the outfits they planned for me… I think Sarah’s the last model today, actually,” he answered between relieving sips. “We’ll have to wait to see if they call any reshoots, though. Some photographers are picky.”
“They never make you reshoot. Your pictures always turn out perfect.”
“I never said they would be for me , silly.” He nudged his boyfriend teasingly with his foot. “By the way, one of the American models invited all of us to dinner and then to come back here to the pool and drink. Seokjin is coming, too.”
Jungkook glanced over with a worried look. “Dinner is a yes. I don’t know about giving you alcohol beside a pool, though.”
Unsurprised but frustrated, Taehyung groaned, flopping backwards dramatically. “I did perfectly fine in and around the water today. Not a single aura! And I haven’t even had a seizure in three months. Almost four!”
“And that’s great! But baby, your last two seizures came on really fast. Like, so fast you just dropped without a word. I didn’t even know the last one happened until I heard you crying.” Taehyung frowned at the immediate tightness around Jungkook’s eyes at the memory. “And alcohol makes you more likely to seize. What if no one’s paying attention and you have an episode and fall in the water?”
Sighing softly, Taehyung twisted to hang his legs off the chair. “First of all, yes, alcohol does increase the chances of me seizing, but, so does stress and being tired, and those two things are just part of being human. Two, I highly doubt that out of twenty-something people at a pool, not one person would see. Look.”
He reached over and took Jungkook’s hands, dragging them to rest on his knees. He fixed him with a serious stare. “You know I appreciate how much you worry about me and how well you take care of me. But Jungkook, I can live a pretty normal life just like everyone else. I just need to be more careful about how I live my life, and take precautions to make sure I’m as safe as I can be. Being safe doesn’t mean I need to be put in a bubble, though. I’m perfectly capable of making smart decisions, and that includes moderating my own drinking.”
Regret colored Jungkook’s face. “I don’t mean that you need to be sheltered or anything, I just—“
Taehyung booped his nose like it was an off button. Jungkook’s mouth snapped shut.
“You feel stressed because we’re in an unfamiliar country where nearly everyone speaks a language that you’re only semi-fluent in, and your epileptic boyfriend is getting into a pool and wanting to drink wine by said pool. You’re more out of your comfort zone than usual. I get it, beautiful.”
The gradual fall of Jungkook’s shoulders and his soft eyes told Taehyung he’d hit the nail on the head. Jungkook knew him almost like the back of his hand, but Taehyung knew Jungkook pretty damn well, too.
“Why do you sound like you’ve known this since we landed?”
“Oh, honey, I’ve noticed since before we even took off. You kept fretting over me having an episode on the plane, remember?”
“Hey, that was perfectly reasonable! If you have a seizure on a plane and you go over five minutes or have a second one, there’s—”
“No way to get me immediate medical attention. I know.” He lifted Jungkook’s hand, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. “But I made the flight just fine. I was fine during the shoot, I’ll be fine drinking tonight, I’ll be fine during all my other shoots this week and even on the flight home. If you spend your entire life worrying about what could happen, you aren’t living, baby. Positive thoughts over negative thoughts, just like your video games.”
Jungkook raised a brow, lip twitching upwards. “Like my video games?”
Taehyung just shrugged. “Well, you aren’t likely to beat boss battles if you go in with a negative mindset, are you?”
Jungkook shook his head in amusement. “No, I guess not.”
“So you go in with good thoughts and all the experience and research you’ve done,” he continued on, stepping between the two lounge chairs to transfer himself over to the other, practically plastering himself to his boyfriend’s side. His skin felt blissfully cooler than his own. “And then you’re the winner.”
Jungkook didn’t at all complain about the heat, happily returning the hug. “I’m already the winner, I’ve got you,” he answered tenderly. He looked so cute, smiling at him with hearts in his eyes like they were still in their honeymoon phase.
Taehyung leant up to kiss him, pulling away with a giggle of, “You big simp.”
Jungkook’s whole face dropped in his surprise before he choked on a cackle. “I shouldn’t have taught you that word,” he gasped, his own laughter mixing with Taehyung’s entertained snickers.
“Too late,” he cooed and leaned forward to peck him on the cheek. “My darling simp.”
Jungkook groaned, but his eyes were shining.
✾
Around eight, Taehyung found himself entertaining a group of fellow models as they waited for the others to bring the alcohol. He wasn’t really sure when they all circled around him — it started with just one, and then others trickled in — but he rolled with it, gesturing with his hands and pronouncing his English the best he could so he didn’t say something wrong.
“So I’m seven, right? And my teacher is convinced I have A-D-H-D. I don’t pay attention or sit still, I get distracted easily. She contacts my parents and tells them, ‘hey, I think your son has this thing,’ and they believe her because it’s not uncommon for people with epilepsy to be A-D-H-D. But they go and get me tested and,” he paused for dramatic effect, grinning at the way he caught Seokjin rolling his eyes in his peripheral. “…I had bad eyesight. My meds were making me see twice — double, see double — so I couldn’t focus on anything on the board. But I was young and silly and accepted that I couldn’t see.”
Sarah laughed beside him and shoved his shoulder. “That’s like the opposite of getting glasses for the first time and realizing you haven’t been able to see clearly in years.”
“ Oh no , I can’t see anymore… Anyways,” Terrel said in exaggerated blandness, making Lydia laugh.
Taehyung just grinned. “Something like that, yeah.”
There was cheers from the far side of the pool where the gate sat. Models wandered towards it to greet those bringing the goods, but a few lingered more patiently. Sarah sighed. “It must be annoying, having your medicine change all the time,” she mumbled. He liked that she actually tried speaking Korean with him. Her practice was really paying off, too. “Especially as a kid. That’s when you want… Ugh. Things to be normal.“
“Stability,” he offered. She smiled and repeated the word to herself as he nodded in agreement. “It could be annoying. Every one has different side effects. But it’s worth it in the end, though. Any improvement helps.”
“Support, too,” she added, sending a tiny nod towards the hotel. Taehyung turned his head to catch sight of Jungkook talking to Seokjin, two red cups in his hand. The elder man waved him off, and Jungkook continued towards him, eyes lighting up a little when their gazes met.
“Support, more than anything,” he agreed. Her eyes crinkled with her smile, and she made a shooing motion with a low wolf whistle. Taehyung snorted and wiggling his fingers in a goodbye wave as he moved to meet him.
“For the beautiful sir,” Jungkook greeted him with a purring tone, holding the cup out like a prized possession.
Taehyung took it with a pinky raised, just to play into his cute dramatics. The plastic crackled in his hold. “Wine in solo cups, how classy,” he teased.
“No glass around the pool,” Jungkook said with a shrug. He let Taehyung take him by the hand and pull him to the edge of the pool, sitting down beside him and dropping his feet into the water.
“Understandable.” Taehyung took a sip, humming at the sweet note to it before he set his cup down and dropped back into the pool. Jungkook sighed, still not quite on board with the whole pools and epilepsy can, in fact, mix boat, but he smiled when Taehyung splashed water towards him and kicked some back.
“How do you like all the other models?” he asked curiously, cringing away with a snort at another splash. “You said you know a few, right?”
Taehyung nodded, picking his cup up for another drink. “Yeah, I’ve worked with Sarah and Lydia,” he told him, pointing off to where he’d been sitting. Lydia had joined Sarah in the lounge chairs, one to the other male models talking with them. Darren? Derrick? Taehyung couldn’t remember which it was. “I’ve worked with Jace, too, but I think he called it a night.”
“And they’re all nice?” Jungkook asked.
Taehyung tilted his head at the slight nervous tone. He put his hands on his knees and smirked a little, flicking water up at his face. Jungkook flinched. “Why? You gonna go all tough guy for me?”
Jungkook wiped a droplet from his eyelash and pouted at him. “No. I just worry.” He glanced across the pool, presumable towards another group somewhere there. “You were kind of frowning when that blond dude was talking to you at dinner, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying and then the girls started chatting and I never got to ask.”
Taehyung nearly cooed. Smiling fondly, pressed himself a little closer until he could wrap his arms around him despite the awkward angle. Jungkook’s hand flew out to make sure Taehyung’s cup didn’t get knocked over. “I was frowning because I couldn’t understand him, either, you silly thing. He was talking too fast.”
Jungkook blinked, uttering a soft, “Oh.”
“Just because my English is impressive to you, doesn’t mean it’s that good,” Taehyung giggled, squeezing him.
“I just wasn’t sure,” Jungkook defended himself, no real passion behind his words. He dragged a hand through Taehyung’s hair. “I couldn’t tell whether he was being a weirdo or not.”
Taehyung drew back with a huffed laugh. “The real weirdos are the photographers and managers, I promise,” he told him in a conspiratory whisperer, watching Jungkook’s nose wrinkle.
“What are you saying about managers?” Seokjin’s voice caught his attention. The man lowered himself down beside Jungkook.
“Nothing,” Taehyung sang, flicking water at him like a bad repellent.
Seokjin just stared at him, unamused. He turned to Jungkook, instead, offering him the second cup he was holding. “Want another?”
Jungkook shook his head, and a cheesy sort of smile bloomed on his lips. “Nope! My amazing boyfriend can only have one measly drink, therefore I will also only have one drink.”
Taehyung raised a brow. “If we were presented with a stack of a hundred bottles of banana milk and I could only have one, would you also only have one?”
Jungkook gaped at him as if he has just said something blasphemous.
Seokjin snorted into his drink. “You two make me feel old.”
“You are.”
“Shut it, gamer boy.”
Taehyung giggled. He reached for his cup, taking another long sip as the two of them playfully shoved each other, then put it down and grabbed Jungkook’s arm.
Jungkook immediately turned to him, probably thinking Taehyung was trying to get his attention. But Taehyung pulled at the same time Seokjin shoved, and Jungkook’s eyes flew wide open, hands scrabbling but failing to get purchase on the pool’s edge before he toppled in.
Jungkook came back up sputtering a variety of not-so-nice Korean curse words at Seokjin that had others turning to look at him curiously, some knowing, some not, while the man receiving the earful just threw his head back and cackled. Jungkook never even turned and looked at Taehyung snickering; he went straight for Seokjin, grabbing him by his button-up’s sleeves and trying to physically wrangle him into the water.
He met more resistance than he probably expected, but it only took a minute or so and Jungkook climbing halfway back out of the pool before he got the leverage he needed and promptly dumped him in, too.
Seokjin gasped his own string of curses once he got the water out of his nose.
Taehyung just clapped for Jungkook, only to turn and flee as fast as he could as soon as he got fixed with the younger’s cold ‘come here right now’ look.
He got dunked. But he couldn’t complain too much if he got to cling to his cute, wet-dog looking, muscled boyfriend and watch him buckle under Taehyung’s squeals for forgiveness.
He had priorities, after all.
✾
They’d been in the water for nearly an hour when Taehyung felt it.
He froze as lightheadedness settled behind his eyes, heavy like a blanket and weighing him down in the water. The sensation brought an odd sense of déjà vu to the surface right alongside it, even though he couldn’t recall ever feeling similar while in water. When he licked his lips as he thought, trying to work out if it was just the alcohol setting in a little stronger than the light buzz he’d been riding, the lingering taste of the wine was suddenly off on his tongue, no longer as pleasantly sweet as it had been before.
He forced himself turn around, away from Jungkook, despite how difficult it felt to push through the water, and gripped the pool’s edge. “I. I need to get out.”
“Okay,” Jungkook answered in an instant. He sounded a little confused — Taehyung couldn’t remember if they’d been talking before it had hit him — but his hands were quick to fall to Taehyung’s hips, regardless, and help him lift himself up and out. “Are you okay?”
“Feel off,” he answered faintly, steadying himself once he was seated. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, curling his fingers around the hands that settled on his knees and focusing on the water dribbling off his hair, kissing his skin.
“Like an aura?” Jungkook asked gently. Taehyung just hummed back, vague.
Seokjin’s voice piped up beside them. Taehyung had forgotten he was even there in the last… minute? Couple of minutes? He didn’t know. “Are you sure it’s an aura? You might just be buzzed.”
“I’m buzzed. But you know… The TVs when you were a kid? When you’d touch the screen and you could feel the static under your fingers?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s like I’m touching one TV with one hand and another TV with the other. There’s two .”
“…Ah.”
He blinked his eyes open when his brain didn’t feel as scattered, squinting against the weight. He didn’t like the fuzziness to it, like it was tickling somewhere he couldn’t reach in his head. “I really don’t wanna seize,” he muttered, squeezing Jungkook’s hand. “I’ve been getting kind of proud of my streak.”
“Your new meds have been doing you good, but this isn’t sobriety. Don’t let yourself feel guilty if you do.” Seokjin replied curtly.
There was a slosh of water, the hands in his disappearing, and then Jungkook was sitting beside him, his hand stroking over Taehyung’s bare back. “D’you wanna go back up to the room?” he offered, Seokjin following and dragging himself up.
Taehyung cast his gaze around the pool, taking in all the other models and staff that were still hanging around, and sighed. “I probably should.”
Jungkook pushed himself to his feet before reaching down and helping him up. Seokjin said something about finding their towels, and he heard Jungkook answer him, but Taehyung ignored it in favor of soaking in the nice feeling of Jungkook’s nails scratching across his scalp. It felt so much better than the pressure in his head.
“If you’re going to fall out, I’d really prefer you give me a warning, if possible,” Jungkook whispered.
Taehyung smiled despite the lame joke. “Noted,” he replied wryly.
Jungkook’s tittering sort of giggle and the arm that curled around his waist made him melt.
Sarah was right. Support was the best thing he could ask for.
✾
Taehyung cracked his eyes open.
The curtains were drawn closed, but a sliver of sunlight still managed to creep through the gap, painting the desk on the far wall with a stripe of warm yellow. He reluctantly rolled onto his back at the proof of day, raising a hand to rub at his bleary eyes.
The quiet singing of running water in the bathroom shut off, pitching the room into silence. Taehyung glanced in that direction, and with a soft huff, shoved himself into a sitting position, legs thrown over the side of the mattress in preparation, but not quite ready to hold him up.
The bathroom door squeaked open a few moments later, and laminate planks creaked under approaching footsteps. “Hey,” Jungkook called softly. When Taehyung twisted to face him properly, equally droopy eyes blinked back at him. If he’d looked like a wet dog the night before, he looked like a towel dried one, now, his hair ruffled and sticking in all directions. “Did I wake you up?”
“No,” he mumbled. Those footsteps crept closer until Jungkook was in front of him and leaning down, brushing a kiss against his forehead that he happily accepted.
“I checked you when I woke up, you didn’t seize in the night,” Jungkook told him, petting a hand over his cheek. “How are you feeling?”
Taehyung paused and stayed still for a moment, waiting for the weight and fuzziness to register to his sleepy mind, for the unrest in his body to bloom all over again. But to his surprise, there was nothing. “I’m... okay,” he said slowly, thoughtfully. “No aura, I think.”
“An aura without a seizure,” Jungkook breathed, the words thick with awe. His eyes sparkled with excitement when Taehyung looked up. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“It might be? It could be more annoying in the long run.” He shook his head. “And, I mean, technically auras are—”
“No, no, I don’t wanna hear that auras are seizures, too,” Jungkook cut him off quickly. He pulled Taehyung up, a big grin all over his face. “You beat the game, baby.”
Taehyung snorted. “I didn’t beat shit—” he started, but he burst into laughter as Jungkook dragged him into some awful impromptu ballroom dance of celebration. There was far more wiggling and bumping in to each other involved for it to be anywhere close to proper form, their squealing and snickering was probably a little louder than what was acceptable for a hotel, and Taehyung was almost completely sure this was somehow going to be a one-off thing.
But, oh well.
He’d just have to enjoy his clean pajamas and Jungkook’s beaming smile while he had it.